IPL to be blamed for India's injury woes in Australia?

Australia coach Justin Langer on Wednesday hinted that the Indian Premier League could be responsible for the large number of injuries suffered by India in the ongoing four-match Test series.

Langer claimed that the 13th edition of IPL, which was held in the UAE in September-November instead of the original schedule in March-April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was not timed ideally for anyone.

Pacers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were ruled out of the entire Australia series after sustaining a side strain during the IPL and Rohit Sharma missed the first couple of Tests with a hamstring injury he suffered during the T20 league

India have also lost quite a few players during the Tests including KL Rahul, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja because of injuries.

Jasprit Bumrah is likely to sit out of the fourth Test, starting in Brisbane from Friday with an abdominal strain and senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin batted through pain after suffering back spasms to help India draw the SCG Test. Hanuma Vihari is also set to miss the Brisbane Test with a serious hamstring injury.

"It is really interesting how many injuries there have been throughout this summer. We suffered through it during the white-ball series and India through the Test series. We will review this, but I cannot help think that the IPL this year probably was not ideal timing for anyone, certainly for such a big series like this," said Langer in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

"I love IPL. I look at the IPL now like I used to look at county cricket for young players, you go and play county cricket and it helps the development enormously. I think it is the same with the IPL with our players, it helps their white-ball development. But the timing of it, probably was not ideal and I wonder if that is having an impact on the injuries we are seeing for both teams throughout this summer," he added.